ITV plc |
ITV plc is a United Kingdom media company which operates the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. It owns a dominant stake in ITV1, which has vied with the British Broadcasting Corporation s BBC One for the status of the UK s most watched channel since the 1950s. ITV plc was formed by the merger of Carlton Communications and Granada plc and began trading on 2 February 2004. This was the latest stage in a long process of mergers between the original ITV regional franchises.
ITV plc currently owns the following ITV franchises in the UK:
Former Granada-owned franchises:
Former Carlton-owned franchises:
As the holder of eleven out of fifteen ITV franchises ITV plc has a dominant influence on ITV1, but it does not actually operate the channel. However it wholly owns the following television channels:
ITV plc also owns 75% of the ITV national breakfast television franchise GMTV, as well as 45% of the Irish broadcaster TV3 (Ireland). The company owns a 40% stake in its news provider Independent Television News Limited.
On 27 April 2005 ITV plc bought the SDN Digital terrestrial television franchise holder of multiplex A (currently transmitting ten channels) from its shareholders, S4C and UBM for £134 million.
ITV plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It was created through a share swop, Granada shareholders exchanged their shares for ITV shares at a rate of 1:1, Carlton shareholders at a rate of almost 2:1. Thus the former Granada shareholders own almost 2/3rds of the new company.
ITV plc is divided into three divisions: Broadcast, which operates the TV networks, News, which runs the ITV regional franchises, and Granada (production company) which is the network production division.
ITV plc also owns the largest cinema advertising business in the UK and Republic of Ireland, Carlton Screen Advertising.|
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